Growing Taller Nutrition Part 4 – Carbohydrates

in NUTRITION

You may be wondering about what else to eat to grow taller.

Well you may also be surprised to find out that a very common mistake lots of people make when trying toget taller is that they include far too much carbohydrate in their diet.

Believe it or not a diet that is high in carbohydrates can have a stunting effect on your growth.

Although carbohydrate does contain a lot of energy, it only contains a very little amount of vitamins and minerals, or anything else your body can use to aid growth.

The high carbohydrate diet is argued to be one of the very reasons that Asian countries have such a short average height compared with those of Europe or the United States.

Foods which Asian countries eat regularly such as corns, rices, breads and grain products are extremely high in carbohydrates but contain little else useful to the bodies development or growth.

This has meant a stunted growth effect which leaves the population in this part of the world shorter than average.

A second important issue to consider when thinking about your ‘grow taller’ nutrition plan is the glycemic index.

The glycemic index or G.I is a measure of how fast the carbohydrate you eat will absorb into the bloodstream and raise your blood sugar levels.

This normally takes place over a period of several hours but it largely depends on the food types you are eating and its GI. As the GI is measured on a scale, the base rate or ‘normal food’ is set at 100, this is normally considered to be white bread.

This is important to growing taller because food which has a higher GI becomes absorbed into your blood quickly and therefore raises the level of insulin in your system.

Why is this bad? Well insulin inhibits the ability of growth hormones in your body.

The following are the Glycemic values for various foods with White Bread as the Standard food value:

152 Maltose	80 Potato, new, boiled	54 Brown beans
138 Glucose	80 Cookies, rich tea	53 Apple
134 Cooked parsnips	79 Rice, polished, boiled 15 min	52 Yogurt
132 Puffed rice	79 Fruit cocktail	52 Tomato soup
128 Potato, Russet, baked	78 Cookies, oatmeal	52 Ice cream
126 Honey	77 Potato chips	52 Fish fingers
121 Rice, instant, boiled 6 min	74 Yam	50 Lima beans
118 Potato, instant	74 Peaches, canned	50 Green peas, dried
117 Cooked carrots	74 Buckwheat	49 Whole milk
115 Corn flakes	74 All Bran	49 Chick peas (Garbanzo)
109 Broad beans (Fava beans)	70 Potato, sweet	48 2% milk
103 Millet	69 Grapefruit juice	47 Rye kernels
100 Tortilla, corn	68 Bread, rye pumpernickel	46 Skim milk
100 Potato, mashed	67 Orange juice	46 Butter beans
100 Bread, wheat, whole meal	66 Pineapple juice	46 Black eye peas
100 Bread, wheat, white	65 Rice, parboiled, boiled 25 min	46 Apricots, dried
99 Rutabaga (Swede)	65 Rice, instant, boiled 1 min	45 Spaghetti, white, boiled 5 min
99 Corn chips	65 Green peas, marrow fat	45 Kidney beans
97 Shredded wheat	65 Green peas, frozen	43 Black beans
96 Muesli (raw oat cereal)	65 Bulgur	40 Peaches
95 Cookies	64 Macaroni, white, boiled 5 min	39 Sausages
95 Bread, rye, crisp bread	63 Wheat kernels	38 Pasta, spaghetti, protein enriched
94 Mars Bar	63 Sponge cake	37 Red lentils
91 Cookies, plain crackers	63 Pears, canned	34 Plum
91 Apricots, canned	62 Grapes	31 Fructose
89 SUCROSE	61 Spaghetti, white, boiled 15 min	31 Barley (pearled)
89 Bread, rye, whole meal	61 Spaghetti, brown, boiled 15 min	22 Soy beans, canned
88 Raisins	60 Baked beans (canned)	20 Soy beans, dried
88 Beet root	59 Orange	15 Peanuts
87 Porridge oats	59 Apple juice	12 Bengal Gram Dal
84 Banana	58 Rice, polished, boiled 5 min	10 Nopal (prickly pear)
82 Cookies, digestive	58 Pears
81 Rice, brown	57 Haricot (white) beans
81 Pastry	54 Rice, parboiled, boiled 5 min
80 Sweet corn	54 Pasta, star white, boiled 5 min

Therefore you should be eating more carbohydrate foods which contain a lower GI (glycemic index) rating to avoid boosting the insulin levels in your blood and preventing the body from effectively using the growth hormones you have in your system.